Laminate panels have already been known for some time in the prior art, and nowadays many different applications, particularly as a replacement for genuine wood panels, can no longer be imagined without them. An especially major field of use is the cladding of walls, ceilings and floors, where the respective cladding is assembled from corresponding wall, ceiling and floor panels. Of course, in different fields of use, the surface quality of laminate panels of this type must satisfy different requirements. A floor panel is of course in this case exposed to substantially higher loads than, for example a wall or ceiling cladding.
The large-scale manufacture of laminate panels in this case involves a whole series of manufacturing steps which are largely identical for the various types of panel. First, a carrier board made, for example, from a wood material, such as MDF, HDF or OSB, is provided, and this is coated with a plurality of layers of, if appropriate, different materials. A decorative layer is supplied to an, if appropriate, pre-treated surface of a wood material board which has been provided as the core of the panel to be produced. This may take place, for example, in the form of a printed impregnated paper. The paper may also be printed directly onto the topside of the wood material board. This may take place by means of pressure rollers or a digital printer. Before the decoration is printed on, if appropriate, a grounding layer may also be applied to the surface of the wood material board. This decoration, particularly in so far as the panel is to be used as a floor panel, has to be covered by at least one wear layer. This may consist, for example, of a lacquer or of a synthetic resin. Advantageously, abrasion-resistant particles (for example, corundum) are admixed and make the surface of the finished panel more resistant to load caused by walking on it. The layer build-up with, if appropriate, a plurality of synthetic resin layers is finally pressed in a press under the influence of pressure and temperature, as disclosed in EP 1 454 763 B1 to which reference is made in full. Subsequently, the still large-format, now coated wood material board is divided into individual panels. After division into individual panels, connection means in the form of a tongue and groove with integrated locking means are attached to the side faces, so that two panels can be connected to one another by means of what is known as a “snap connection” and can be interlocked in the vertical and horizontal direction. In order to increase the realistic appearance of a laminate panel, it is known, during the pressing of the layer build-up, to emboss into the topside a structure matching with the decoration (embossed-in-register). The laminate panel is thereby further equated, for example, to a genuine wood panel not only visually, but also by feel.
Alternatively, coating may also take place with lacquer layers which are subsequently cured, using high-energy radiation, for example electron and UV radiation. In this case, too, the large-format coated carrier board is divided into panels only after the complete curing of the layers applied.
In the market of laminate panels, in particular of floor panels, a demand for ever more diverse decoration variants has been seen. Thus, there is a demand not only for ever new wood imitations, but also, increasingly, for tile and brick decorations and also fantasy decorations in the most diverse possible forms. However, the conversion of a large-scale manufacturing plant for laminate panels to a new decoration is relatively complicated and time-intensive and is therefore costly. Moreover, for example when the decoration is applied in the form of a printed decorative paper to the wood material core, decorative papers having diverse decorations have to be kept in stock. This requires a large amount of storage space and also ties up an unnecessarily large amount of capital due to the large quantity of decorative papers to be kept in reserve.
If the decoration is printed directly onto the wood material board, for example, via pressure rollers, a dedicated set of rollers has to be kept in reserve for each decoration, particularly the procurement of these rollers being cost-intensive. When a structure is to be embossed into the topside, the press platens or press plates additionally have to be engraved cost-intensively. Moreover, the exchange of such press platens or press plates takes up time during which the production plant is at a standstill, and therefore the production costs for laminate panels rise.
For the abovementioned reasons, it is economically expedient to produce relatively large quantities of laminate panels with a decoration once selected before panels having another decoration are produced.
However, as well as the demand for ever more diverse decoration variants, a growing reduction in the order sizes demanded is also to be seen. If, however, quantities of laminate panels with a specific decoration which are too small are demanded, these cannot be produced economically. Individual orders therefore have to be “collected” by the trade or by wholesalers, thus resulting for the end user in long delivery times which are unacceptable particularly in the do-it-yourself sector. Some of the demand consequently cannot be satisfied.
WO 2010/055429 A2 discloses a method for the production of a panel, in which, first, a grounding is applied to the topside of a large-format wood material board. The wood material board thus grounded is, if appropriate, pressed and is subsequently divided into individual panels. Only thereafter are the individual panels printed with the desired decoration.
One disadvantage is that, although, by virtue of the method described in the publication mentioned, the manufacturing plant itself can be designed to be smaller and more compact since the large-format wood material boards no longer have to be printed, but, instead, smaller panels, it is usually not possible to achieve faster delivery times for small batch sizes with individual decorations. If a customer orders a small quantity of panels having a desired decoration, for example, from a panel dealer, the dealer will collect the incoming orders until he orders, overall, a sufficient number of panels from the panel manufacturer. This is necessary in order to keep the transport costs within justifiable limits, since laminate panels are transported, for example, by large heavy goods vehicles which, so that they can operate efficiently, have to be loaded up to a certain capacity. Although the efficiency of the production method can be increased, using smaller plants, by virtue of the method described in WO 2010/055429 A2, flexibility, particularly regarding the fast delivery of small and very small batch sizes with individual decorations, is not achieved.